Halo 3: The Beginnings
by ArbitorMessiah
Summary: After Halo 2 Guesses on the Forerunner and a small excert.
1. Chapter 1: Standby

**Halo 2: Aftershock**

"Then where, where would someone go to activate the other rings?" Miranda said, her voice eager.

"Why the Ark, of course." the Monitor said in his normal superfluos tone.

"And where Oracle, is that?" the Arbiter stepped forward, his ornate armor catching the light from the gravity lift and making it appear that he was glowing.

"Here." 343 opened a small hologram and showed a planet. It's designation, oddly in English.

Sol.


	2. Chapter 2: The end of the beginning

**Chapter 2: The end of the beginning..**

The Forerunners were actually not that different from Humans. As they evolved over time though, they gained a better appreciation of nature. Their people were harmonious, rebellions and uprisings mere legends. They had, however, a single flaw.

Pride.

They created the Flood not as a species to combat their enemies, but as a species that would proclaim their technological advancement and harmony with nature. They did not know the true nature of the flood yet. But soon, oh very soon, they would.

These are the last hours of the Forerunner - They were fighting a losing fight. Let us take a close look at the last few minutes, but not too close.

* * *

**Last moments.**

The Flood had been a colossal mistake. They had swiftly spread from the research facilities and evolved. They had engineered the flood to be adaptive, but they had not known how much they would rue their decision.

They had engineered the Halo's in order to save themselves, and future generations from the Flood. They were at once more beautiful, and more powerful than anything the Forerunner had created.

He was charged with activating the Halo's. He would be the only one saved from the murderous light - For it was his fate. He knew this, and wondered about all he had done in his life. He would be preserved in a stasis cell, far beyond the reach of the Flood. The Ark of course rested on a backwater planet. It contained a very primitive ape-like race that had been infused with Forerunner DNA in the hopes that evolution would carry them on the same genetic path as the Forerunner. He hoped that they would find this place before they discovered the Halo's and the Flood, but he knew not of their fate.

He saw the timer counting down "00:00:14". He closed his eyes, imagined his beautiful wife and all he would leave behind to be the salvation of their posterity. He opened his eyes in the rapidly cooling cryo-pod, a single tear now frozen under his right eye.

"00:00:00"

He watched the single wall sized Monitor. The light was so bright.. yet so deadly. Anything it touched would instantly die a painless instant death. As his eyes fluttered and sleep descended upon him, his last conscious thought was this, "To all who follow - We're sorry."


	3. Chapter 3: The Forging

**Chapter 3: The Forging**

"What!" spat Johnson, every human knew that their system was dubbed Sol.

"Do you know this location, human?" the Arbiter asked, his voice curious.

"It's our home system. It contains our homeworld - Earth." Keyes replies, her eyes still glued to the hologram.

The small hologram was puzzling, it seemed to be displayed in real time. Many dots were around the planet, with lines connecting some of them. Dots were dissapearing rapidly, and new dots occasionally appeared.

"This display is in real time! Earth is being attacked again!" she was almost yelling, every instinct told her that she should be home, fighting off the Covenant.

The Arbiter looked at her, and noticed the dots. He knew now that they were not his enemies, but equals. He would lend what little support he could. They also seemed to have an odd affinity with the Oracle, it was intriguing.

"Human-" the Arbiter said, who was quickly cut off by Keyes.

"I am Commander Keyes, that is Johnson, I would appreciate it if you would refer to us so."

She had seem to have came to the same conclusion as him, which was good.

"I am the Arbiter. And I have a proposal to make." his voice warbled on "to" which gave an odd comical releif.

"And what would that be, spli- Arbiter." Johsnson said, stopping midsentence.

The human was learning diplomacy, he was glad.

"I propose that we form an alliance. We must wipe the traitorous Prophets and their lap-dogs from existance!" he slammed his fist down on a nearby pillar, his shields flaired slightly as he did so.

"Well, Arbiter. I agree, but we will have a much harder time convincing our superiors.." Miranda said, trailing off into thought.

"Good," said the Arbiter, "An inbound phantom will be picking us up. Let me lead so that I may tell them about our alliance."

The monitor, clearly forgotten, had activated a small energy ramp, which lead back out of the chamber.

As they walked up the ramp, Johnson noticed a white Elite with a large headdress.

"What's the hat for?" he said, barely concealing a grin.

The Elite looked at him, and seeing that Johnson meant no disrespect, replied.

"It is my mark as a Councilor. I lead the Elites." he said, his voice swelling with dignity and pride.

"Our leaders hide in bunkers underground. I like your style." Johnson said.

The Elite looked taken aback at first, but thanked the Sargeant.

* * *

**Dustoff**

The Arbiter had gone ahead to tell the Phantom pilot and the troops aboard that the humans were not be harmed. They were allies now. The two marines Johnson had fought to the Scarab had not taken to the idea very well, their best friend had been killed by an Elite.

"Sir, why should we allie with them! They killed Greenback!" the Marine said, his voice shaking with anger.

"Because Marine! They are a fighting chance against the rest of those bastards!" he said, his voice rising as he did so.

"I hate them! And you should too!" the Marine yelled, his face growing red.

"I don't hate them! They were hoodwinked into beleiving that we were enmies, and now they want to rectify that mistake! We need all the help we can get!" Sarge said, his eyes trained upon the Marine.

The Marine looked at Johnson, and then to his friend, who shrugged.

"Fine - But I don't like it." the Marine said, his voice calming.

The Arbiter and Councilor pretended not to hear this arguement, they both knew how the Marine must feel.

The Arbiter had returned and informed them the Phantom was awaiting them.

As they walked towards the now fried entrance, they could here the tale-tell whine of the Phantoms Anti-Grav engines.

When they exited, there were two Spec. Ops Elites and 4 Spec Ops grunts waiting for them.

The Elites watched with knowing eyes, and the Grunts spoke in their native tongue to one another.

As the passed, Johnson noted that one Elite was missing the mandibles on the left side of its face.

As they entered the miniature grav-lift and were ushered upwards, the elite with only two mandibles spoke to the other Elites.  
-

"They are to remain unharmed, if one of you so much as breaks their skin I will personally take your head."

The Elites clicked their mandibles to show an affirmative, and the Grunts nodded their heads slightly.  
-

Aboard the Phantom Keyes and Johnson were already strapping themselves into the Elite sized harnesses. They fit moderately well, enough to keep them from thrashing around.

As the Arbiter came up the lift, he immediately went to the cock-pit of the Phantom and gave the pilot instructions. He then came back and seated himself across from Johnson, Keyes, and the Marines.

Keyes looked at the Arbiter, "Where are we going?"

"We are heading to the Elite flagship, the Mercy and Grace."

"How long until we get there?" she said, noticing a Grunt fiddling with anothers environmental suit.

"Approximately 15 human minutes" he said, tapping the Grunt on the head with the butt of his Plasma Rifle, the Grunt yelled "Agh!" and rubbed its head in the spot where it had been hit, shooting a repraochful look at the Arbiter before drifting off to sleep only a minute later.


	4. Chapter 4: Meeting and Trouble

**Chapter 4: Meeting and Trouble**

"How did you lose them?" he said.

"Fighting the parasite, they used your weapons" he said, tilting his head slightly at the question,"your weapons do cause quite alot of pain, although primitive."

"They're good enough for me." Johnson said, eyeing the Elite.

"I meant no disrespect, but compared to our weapons yours are far less advanced. They are quite good against the Parasite though, I once used a 'Shotgun' as you call it." he look at Johnson curiosly, the human showed no fear.

Their conversation over, each resumed the scrutinization of the dropship and its occupants.

* * *

**All aboard**

The grav-lift hummed to life as they descended, and immediately stopped as the Arbiter stepped out of it.

"'Molanee, take these humans to their quarters." said the Arbiter, in the native Sangheili tongue.

"Yes, Arbiter!" he said ushering his way over to the humans.

"I am Kray'Molanee, I will be showing you to your quarters." he said to them.

As they walked along, Miranda was amazed at the Covenant alloy. While supra-dense it was still beautiful and caught the light in no way Titanium-A could have. As they walked along, she also noted various holo-panels and doors leading off to places unknown.

Apparently they had reached their quarters, the Elite was ushering them into a door. She walked slowly into the room, breathing in the beauty of the place. It was lit with indirect lighting, and thus nothing cast shadows. The chairs and cots were made of an odd material that while firm, still conformed comfortably to her contours.

The Elite at the door motioned to a small holo-panel.

"The lights" he then pointed to another one on the other side of the door,"and the call button, if anything troubles you this will inform one of the Elites."

He then turned around and walked out of the room, leaving the humans alone.

"Wow - This is pretty nice for alien bastards.." said Johnson, impressed with the Covenant architecture.

"They're Elites or Sangheili Johnson, the call you by your name, try to call them by theirs." she said, relaxing into the chair.

"Yes, ma'am." he said, eyeing the holograms.

* * *

**The Signal**

Her eyes opened slowly,and the room slowly swam into focus. As she looked around, she noticed Johnson and his marines napping. As she looked around the room, an announcement blared over the speakers.

"Humans - You are required on the bridge!" the anxious voice of an Elite sounded.

Johnson and the Marines snapped awake, and groggily asked what all the noise was about.

"Apparantly, we're wanted on the bridge."

Around a second after she had finished, theRed Elite,Kray, entered the door.

"I am here to take you to the bridge, come, with haste!" the Elite was clearly shaken, but they said nothing and silently followedhim to the bridge.

Five minutes later, they each stood on the Bridge, which was impressive. There was a raised dais in the middle,under which were two small ruts that held several Elite personnel.

"We have received a message from our Elite forces, we have 340 ships remaining from the engagement with the Brutes. We have also received a distress call from High Charity, apparently there are still cells of Elites, Hunters, and Grunts still fighting the parasite and even more odd, the Guardian Spirit reports another construct in the system, we're assuming it's yours?" theArbitor said, standing on the dais and sending orders to the other ships.

"What? The only construct we have here is Cortana, but she was supposed to be with the Cheif!" Miranda said, contemplating why Cortana would be alone.

"I assume we're going to rescue them?" she said, her eyes playing around the huge bridge.

"Yes- Would you be willing to join us?" he said, nodding towards Johnson and the Marines.

"Of couse, i've been itchin to kill me some parasite!" said Johnson, looking back at his Marines, who seemed less than happy to be dragged along.


End file.
